Briars

“These plants are not typically satisfactory in lawns and gardens. There are several ways to get rid of them, but only one method proves to be permanent.”

I love these lines: “And the truth of briars she had to have run through.” The “sharp truth distressing surfaces of fur” reminds me of another poem of Rich’s, “Late Ghazal,” where she writes, “In the thickets of abstraction my skin ran with blood.”